RAGBRAI ?!? (Read 3343 times)

Dude, RAGBRAI is not family friendly. Too much beer around and the adults act silly after all that beer. I would also never want to be waiting in line for food with a kiddo. Best bet for kiddos would be to have your own RV that can boondock nightly for the week. Preparing your own food in a half an hour is way better that waiting in line at Joe Blow's small town IA restaurant's line for an hour.

That's been my suspicion, as well. My MIL forgets what it's like to deal with a tired, hungry kid. And my kiddo is pretty laid-back, but he's still a kid and when his patience have worn thin he is not particularly fun to be around (he gets that from both parents, heh).

Ragbrai keeps wanting to change it into a more family friendly event. They are on the lookout for the (clothing optional) beer slides that are advertised as well as other fun activities, and you see more kids on it, but it remains something like an adult spring break. Teams will bike by with their shorts pulled down and their asses hanging out, our team has a collection of insanely filthy songs that get broken out all the time (I blame our New Orleans contingent), and the middle of the streets in the towns have the beer gardens. They are full by 9 am.

We have noticed two things about the kids on the ride, they are either on one of those bikes that attach to their parents bike and are tilted at some crazy angle the whole ride, or their parents have them on their own bike for a 70 mile day. Problem is, it is always a big knobby-tired mountain bike. Way to make it even harder on them.

Ragbrai keeps wanting to change it into a more family friendly event. They are on the lookout for the (clothing optional) beer slides that are advertised as well as other fun activities, and you see more kids on it, but it remains something like an adult spring break. Teams will bike by with their shorts pulled down and their asses hanging out, our team has a collection of insanely filthy songs that get broken out all the time (I blame our New Orleans contingent), and the middle of the streets in the towns have the beer gardens. They are full by 9 am.

We have noticed two things about the kids on the ride, they are either on one of those bikes that attach to their parents bike and are tilted at some crazy angle the whole ride, or their parents have them on their own bike for a 70 mile day. Problem is, it is always a big knobby-tired mountain bike. Way to make it even harder on them.

Well, we do have a proper Co-Motion tandem, so the bike part we've got right (and our kid has already done a 53+ mile ride and logged a couple of 100+ mile weeks, so we know he could do the distance--at least for a day or two). But, yeah, from everything I've ever heard I envision RAGBRAI as sort of a mobile Burning Man. Las Vegas also tried to attract families a while back, but that seems like it was a pretty big fail to me (my sister is getting married in Vegas this Dec. and I finally talked her out of bringing her 11 year old and autistic 10 year old along for the event. *I* was stressing-out for those boys. She's never been to Vegas, so she doesn't realize just how inappropriate a place it is to bring kids, regardless of what the Vegas board of tourism would like people to believe). I imagine RAGBRAI to have about the same level of raunch (which would be a blast for the hubby and I sans-kid).

And my MIL is the same woman who likes to give us WAY too much TMI about her sex life...in general she's just sort of off when it comes to what's appropriate for a given audience.

That is one of those things that I think is absolutely hysterical. But not if it was to happen to me.

It really makes my DH want to bleach his brain. I think the added insult comes from the fact that he lost his dad to cancer 5 years ago, so the details she's sharing involve someone other than his dad and we think the guy is kinda icky (he's really a jerk. A couple of years ago on RAGBRAI he told my MIL that she was cheap and they got into a huge fight--on a tandem. She broke the engagement off, but then came back and finished the ride with him a couple of days later. They've broken their engagement off at least twice and behave like a couple of teenagers...texting while driving, texting in restaurants, TMI...generally the sorts of things one doesn't expect out of people in their late 60s. The dude has like 3 kids from a previous marriage and has no relationship with any of them). She loves to fill us in on her horny widow exploits...blech.

I don't entirely agree. If the parents keep their troop away from the beer gardens and party buses, and just enjoy the ride, the booths, church dinners, etc., I think it can be a good family experience. The kids will see some weird stuff, though.

'15 Goals:

I don't entirely agree. If the parents keep their troop away from the beer gardens and party buses, and just enjoy the ride, the booths, church dinners, etc., I think it can be a good family experience. The kids will see some weird stuff, though.

Ragbrai came through my hometown twice when I was growing up. We lived far enough away from the fairgrounds and city park that we didn't have bikers knocking on our door offering us cash for a hot shower or space to camp in our yard. One of those years they had a mobile tent city that was made for the sole purpose of keeping campsites small. Once you count crew this thing is over 12k peeps a night, so that county seat of 5k where you are spending the night is going WTF? Traffic? We don't have traffic here. Why are they all drunk? (Yes, a ton of you bikers are drunk by the time you get to the host city, admit it.) My town was big for an IA town but Ragbrai still almost doubled our size for one night. I know what it takes to clean up the mess after this thing leaves the city. Crazy. But the cites apply for this because you guys spend butt loads of money in a day.

I would have to try this for a day to see if I could handle it. I don't think I could. After day 3 of no sleep because other campers are crazy loud, I might kill someone. If I had my own RV it might be better. I also have to do tandem biking. meh.

Ragbrai came through my hometown twice when I was growing up. We lived far enough away from the fairgrounds and city park that we didn't have bikers knocking on our door offering us cash for a hot shower or space to camp in our yard. One of those years they had a mobile tent city that was made for the sole purpose of keeping campsites small. Once you count crew this thing is over 12k peeps a night, so that county seat of 5k where you are spending the night is going WTF? Traffic? We don't have traffic here. Why are they all drunk? (Yes, a ton of you bikers are drunk by the time you get to the host city, admit it.) My town was big for an IA town but Ragbrai still almost doubled our size for one night. I know what it takes to clean up the mess after this thing leaves the city. Crazy. But the cites apply for this because you guys spend butt loads of money in a day.

I would have to try this for a day to see if I could handle it. I don't think I could. After day 3 of no sleep because other campers are crazy loud, I might kill someone. If I had my own RV it might be better. I also have to do tandem biking. meh.

That's one of the best things about RAGBRAI. I loved seeing how a little town of 1000 mobilizes to prepare for 10,000 visitors in one day. The clubs set up their booths, the Lion's Club puts on their barbecue lunch or the Lutheran church has a spaghetti dinner, with all the ladies baking hundreds of pies, acting troupes and dance groups put on their acts, restaurants and bars order in more supplies than they have sold all year, and all of the townsfolk sit on their lawnchairs gawking at the weirdos from every state riding through on every imaginable contraption.

I would have to try this for a day to see if I could handle it. I don't think I could. After day 3 of no sleep because other campers are crazy loud, I might kill someone. If I had my own RV it might be better. I also have to do tandem biking. meh.

Like I said...ride with us. A 1970's 40ft Bus style RV. We have pre-arranged host homes everynight. A hot shower everyday. 4 sleep on the bus, the rest of us pull up couches, spare bedrooms or roll out an air mattress on the floor. Many times...about 50/50 these homes will provide us with dinner and or breakfast.

It's been said of RAGBRAI that it is the worlds largest party on two wheels. That's pretty accurate. It does make for a nice little economic boom for these little towns. They figure an overnight town can see $300k - $500k spent in one night. It's become much more commerialized with the traveling vendors so less of this money is falling into the volunteer fire departments and church groups. Health departments have also made it harder for these groups to serve home cooked foods due to licensing requirements.

Anyway...we have room on the bus but if you want to go I'll need to know ASAP. Seriously.

We have great time...meet tons of really cool people, drink lots of beer, laugh lots, shake our heads in bewilderment and eat like there's no tomorrow. We got all day to get there and have no preconceived notions of what we're going to do. It's my favorite week of the year.